San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party (SLOCDP)

SLO County News

Discussion on Homelessness in SLO County to take place at the Board of Supervisors' Chamber with host Supervisor Adam Hill, Wednesday, May 2nd, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM

IRS Sends Maldonado Tax Bill for $470,000...McCathy Newspapers, The Tribune

Central California Republican congressional candidate Abel Maldonado is haggling with the Internal Revenue Service over some $470,000 in disputed taxes, court records show.

A Beautiful Moment - President Obama with Jodi Fisher of Cayucos

Update, March 17 , 2012.  We are saddened to report that Jodi passed away early this morning.  Our heartfelt condolences go out to her family.

Shaking President Obama's hand was on her bucket list and she got more than that - a heartfelt hug. Note CA Attorney General Kamala Harris and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom in the background.

Jodi Fisher, Cayucos Woman Dying of Cancer, to Meet President Obama....The Tribune

Jodi Fisher gets to meet President Barack Obama.  It's another wish fulfilled for the Cayucos woman who was diagnosed with inoperable cancer nearly two years ago.

SLO County Delegates Attend the California Democratic Convention

Elected delegates returned home energized by the 2012 Democratic Convention which took place in San Diego February 10 - 12.  Attendees included SLOCDP Chair Pat Harris, Vice-chairs Susan Devine and Mike Heyl, Recording Secretary Richard Zamora, Treasurer Marilyn Armstrong, SLO City Councilman John Ashbaugh, Region 10 Director Cory Black, State Executive Board Rep Cheryl Conway, elected delegates David Baldwin, Mark Buchman, Jim Conway, Ron Sampson, Allison Groves, proxy Lori Caudil and  volunteer Dawn Tomastik.  

SLO County was honored to have a member of the SLOCDP Executive Board, Marilyn Armstrong, receive the "Volunteer of the Year" award for Region 10 which includes, SLO, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.  Marilyn Armstrong is the Treasurer and Marketing and Communication Chair for SLOCDP.    

Delegates attended informative workshops and general assemblies which featured an impressive line of speakers including Nancy Pelosi, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Gov. Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Kamala Harris, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones and CA Controller John Chiang to name a few.  Dianne Feinstein and Al Frankin were keynote speakers at a featured luncheon and dinner.

Watch the fiery speech by Kamala Harris HERE

Ordinance to Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags Going Before Board Jan 11

Update:  Ban on bags passes by an 8 to 5 vote - thanks to everyone who attended!

This Wednesday is the big  day for the attempt to ban single-use plastic bags and curb the use of certain single-use paper bags in the County.  The Integrative Waste Management Agency’s 13-member board will be voting on the ordinance at the Board of Supervisors Chambers on Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo at 2 p.m.  Land and sea pollution (including the infamous Pacific Ocean Garden Patch), unnecessary use of declining resources and squandering of money are some of the many reasons to be in support.  Most if not all of the supermarkets as well as the California Grocers Association are supportive their own costs will be reduced.  So-called free bags are not free t o society and to the planet.  Voluntary action and education by themselves not do it.  This is a reasonable responsibility of our county government.

First Study of Seismic Studies' Impacts Set...by Jack McCurdy, Slo Coast Journal

The first official draft of an environmental impact report on  PG&E's proposed deep-sea seismic studies related to faults near the Diablo  Canyon nuclear plant is being planned for public release in January. It will  help determine if local fishers are right in expecting severe impacts of the  seismic studies on local fisheries.

Buffett company investment in SLO county solar farm could boost industry ...L.A. Times

The agreement by investor Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings to buy a $2-billion photovoltaic farm in San Luis Obispo County could bring a ray of financial sunshine to the battered solar-energy industry.

STATE POLITICAL NEWS

Study Tout's California's Clean-Tech Industry ...by Mark Glover, Sacramento Bee

California's clean-technology industry is growing and supporting economic recovery in the state, according to a report released today by Next 10....The new report says clean-tech investment in California rose 24 percent from 2010 to 2011 to reach $3.5 billion. Patent registrations increased more than 40 percent in the last half of the 2000-10 decade.

Protections for Homeowners Must Stay Strong....Sacramento Bee

Four years after the housing bubble burst, the California Legislature seems poised to push through significant homeowner protections.

It's about time.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris is the driving force behind several of the bills, which are scheduled to face their first hearings today and Tuesday. The flurry of activity comes in the aftermath of a $25 billion settlement struck earlier this year by state attorneys general with five major lenders.

Solar Installations Doubled Last Year, With California Leading the Way....Mercury News

California continued to lead the nation, installing 542 megawatts, accounting for 29 percent of all installations in the country. Next came New Jersey, Arizona and New Mexico

GOP referendum on state Senate districts qualifies for fall ballot

State Democratic Party Chairman John Burton said the referendum is "sour grapes" by Republicans who did not get the political advantage they had hoped for in the new districts.

"I believe the voters are going to sustain the commission’s maps, just as they voted for the commission in the first place," Burton said.

Brown Pins Legacy to Calif. High-Speed Rail Plans...the Sacremento Bee  

He (Brown) said a state with a population of nearly 38 million - projected to be 49.2 million by 2030, three years before the first phase of the rail line would be finished - already is stifled by traffic gridlock and air pollution.

California, Brown says, can't afford to miss the chance to invest in high-speed rail, which he promotes as a clean-energy alternative for travel.

"Spain can build it. China can build it. France can build it. Germany can build it. England can build it. Japan can build it. But oh, we can't build it," Brown said, mocking critics in a speech a week ago to the California Democratic Party convention. "No, we can build more airport runways, more freeways over the next 50 years. That's twice as expensive. So I'm not saying it's cheap; I'm just saying it's cheaper than the alternative, and it's a hell of a lot better.".......

Brown has support from President Barack Obama's administration, which included $35 billion for passenger rail over the next five years in its latest budget proposal. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited California earlier this month to reaffirm the president's support.

State of the State 2012: "California On The Mend"....Gov. Jerry Brown

For my part, I am determined to press ahead both with substantial budget cuts and my tax initiative. The cuts are not ones I like but the situation demands them. As for the initiative, it is fair. It is temporary. It is half of what people were paying in 2010. And it will protect our schools and guarantee—in the constitution—funding for the public safety programs we transferred to local government. With enough time, we can and should devise more permanent tax reform but for now we should finish the job of bringing spending into balance with revenues.

Candidates Take Note: New Poll Shows Independent Voters are Environmentalists...CA League of Conservation Voters

Listen up, candidates for office in California: Independent voters care about the environment.  A groundbreaking new statewide poll of California voters who decline-to-state (DTS) an affiliation with any political party reveals the strong environmental and other progressive values of this poorly-understood but growing bloc of voters.

The Vote Heard Around the World Video....Move to Amend

On December 6th, 2011, Los Angeles became the first major U.S. city to call for an amendment reserving Constitutional rights solely for living human beings.

Open Letter to the People of California from Gov. Jerry Brown

The stark truth is that without new tax revenues, we will have no other choice but to make deeper and more damaging cuts to schools, universities, public safety and our courts.

That is why I am filing today an initiative with the Attorney General’s office that would generate nearly $7 billion in dedicated funding to protect education and public safety. I am going directly to the voters because I don’t want to get bogged down in partisan gridlock as happened this year. The stakes are too high.

My proposal is straightforward and fair.  It proposes a temporary tax increase on the wealthy, a modest and temporary increase in the sales tax, and guarantees that the new revenues be spent only on education.

National Political News

Obama Says Same Sex Marriage Should be Legal...N.Y. Times

"President Obama's words today will be celebrated by generations to come," said Chad Griffin, the incoming president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay advocacy group. "For the millions of young gay and lesbian Americans across this nation, President Obama's words provide genuine hope that they will be the first generation to grow up with the freedom to fully pursue the American dream. Marriage — the promise of love, companionship, and family — is basic to the pursuit of that dream."

No, Social Security and Medicare Aren't Going "Bankrupt"...by Paul Van de Water, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Some news media and policymakers have seriously misrepresented the findings of the 2012 Social Security and Medicare trustees' reports. The CBS Evening News reported, "Medicare will run out of money in 2024. Social Security retirement benefits run out in 2035." The Republican Doctors' Caucus says that Medicare is going "bankrupt."

Such assertions are extremely misleading, as our new paper explains.

The Santorum Strategy...by Gearge Lakoff

The Republican presidential campaign is not just about the presidential race. It is about using conservative language to strengthen conservative values in the brains of voters -- in campaigns at all levels from Congress to school boards. Part of the Republican strategy is to get liberals to argue against them, repeating conservative language. There is a reason I wrote a book called Don't Think of an Elephant! When you negate conservative language, you activate conservative ideas and, hence, automatically and unconsciously strengthen the brain circuitry that characterizes conservative values.

As I was writing the paragraphs above, the mail came. In it was material from Public Citizen (an organization I admire) promoting Single Payer Health Care (which I agree with) by arguing against right-wing lies about it. In big, bold type the lies were listed: Single payer is socialized medicine. Single payer will lead to rationing, like in Canada. Costs will skyrocket under single Payer. And so on. After each one, came the negative: Wrong. And then in small, unbolded type, the laundry lists of policy truths. Public Citizen was unconsciously promoting the conservative lies by repeating them in boldface and then negating them.

Coming Soon:  The End of Health Insurers As We Know Them -- By Self-Inflicted Wounds...by Wendell Potter

...the day when most Americans get their coverage from what we think of as an insurance company is close at hand. It won't be long before most of us get coverage through either a state or federal government-run plan or a local nonprofit company. The big investor-owned corporations like Aetna and the companies I used to work for, Cigna and Humana, know that the days of making a killing off of basic medical insurance policies are over. And the companies have no one to blame but themselves and a fatally flawed, uniquely American system of providing access to care.

Gas Prices Rise on Wall Street's Bets...by Robert Reich, SFGate.com

But the current surge in gas prices has almost nothing to do with energy policy. It doesn't even have much to do with global supply and demand. It has most to do with America's continuing failure to adequately regulate Wall Street.

Our Dependence on Foreign Oil Is Declining

America's dependence on foreign oil has gone down every single year since President Obama took office. In 2010, we imported less than 50 percent of the oil our nation consumed—the first time that's happened in 13 years—and the trend continued in 2011.

How The GOP Went Back To The 1950s In Just One Day  

Very neatly, and on three separate fronts, conservatives in America turned the clock back to the 1950s with their rhetoric about women's rights Thursday, according to women in politics on both sides of the aisle. This could be a big problem for the GOP when the calendar reaches November.

Democratic Women Boycott House Contraception Hearing After Republicans Prevent Women From Testifying      

Ranking committee member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) had asked Issa to include a female witness at the hearing, but the Chairman refused, arguing that "As the hearing is not about reproductive rights and contraception but instead about the Administration's actions as they relate to freedom of religion and conscience, he believes that Ms. Fluke is not an appropriate witness."

REPORT: What The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Has Done For You Already....by Travis Waldron, Think Progress

...despite GOP opposition, the CFPB has begun taking important steps toward fulfilling its mission. Based on Cordray's prepared remarks and other reports, ThinkProgress compiled a rundown of the programs the CFPB has already established to aid consumers and the steps it plans to take in the future:

Andrew Sullivan: How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics

If I sound biased, that's because I am. Biased toward the actual record, not the spin; biased toward a president who has conducted himself with grace and calm under incredible pressure, who has had to manage crises not seen since the Second World War and the Depression, and who as yet has not had a single significant scandal to his name. "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle," George Orwell once wrote. What I see in front of my nose is a president whose character, record, and promise remain as grotesquely underappreciated now as they were absurdly hyped in 2008. And I feel confident that sooner rather than later, the American people will come to see his first term from the same calm, sane perspective. And decide to finish what they started.

Organic Farmers and Seed Sellers Sue Monsanto to Protect Themselves from Patents on Genetically Modified Seed...Public Patent Foundation

Preemptive Action Seeks Ruling That Would Prohibit Monsanto From Suing Organic Farmers and Seed Growers If Contaminated By Roundup Ready Seed

The case, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, was filed in federal district court in Manhattan and assigned to Judge Naomi Buchwald.  Plaintiffs in the suit represent a broad array of family farmers, small businesses and organizations from within the organic agriculture community who are increasingly threatened by genetically modified seed contamination despite using their best efforts to avoid it.  The plaintiff organizations have over 270,000 members, including thousands of certified organic family farmers. 

Newt Gingrich Tells Gay Iowan To Vote For Obama...Faiz Shakir, Think Progress

"I asked him if he's elected, how does he plan to engage gay Americans. How are we to support him? And he told me to support Obama," said Arnold.

Obama on 'Trickle Down' Economics: 'It Doesn't Work, It Has Never Worked'...by Travis Waldron, Think Progress

In 1910, former President Theodore Roosevelt gave his rousing "New Nationalism" speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, where he called for new approaches to dealing with the problems the nation faced. President Obama visited Osawatomie today, and in his own speech — his first major economic speech since Occupy Wall Street protests began highlighting income inequality and corporate greed — Obama called for a new approach to addressing America's current economic challenges.

Overestimating Presidential Power...by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly

In our system of government, the president simply does not have the legal or institutional authority to approve sweeping economic legislation on his or her own. The number of voters who don't seem to fully understand this is disconcerting.

Norquist Tells GOP That Raising Taxes On The Middle Class Doesn't Count As A Tax Increase...by Travis Waldron, Think Progress

Anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist, the president of Americans For Tax Reform and author of the radical anti-tax pledge that has played a significant role in hamstringing budget and deficit-reduction negotiations, has said that it is unacceptable for those who have signed his pledge to vote in favor of any tax increase. But now that President Obama and congressional Democrats are backing a tax cut aimed at stimulating economic growth, Norquist has changed his tune.

Social Movements vs. "Social Movements": Comparing Occupy and the Tea Party...by Scott Borchert, Truthout

Occupy Elections, With a Simple Message...by George Lakoff, Truthout

Wall Street exerts its force through the money that buys elections and elected officials. But ultimately, the outcome of elections depends on people willing to take to the streets - registering voters, knocking on doors, distributing information, speaking in local venues. The way to change the nation is to occupy elections.

First Amendment Hijacked by Moneyed Interests...by Robert Reich, S.F.Gate

A funny thing happened to the First Amendment on its way to the public forum: It was hijacked.  According to the Supreme Court, money is now speech, and corporations are now people.  Yet when real people without money assemble to express their dissatisfaction with the political consequences of this, they're treated as public nuisances - clubbed, pepper-sprayed, thrown out of public parks and evicted from public spaces.